You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World by Clare Wright

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian | Series: Democracy Trilogy Ser.

For the ten years from 1902, when Australia's suffrage campaigners won the vote for white women, the world looked to this trailblazing young democracy for inspiration. Clare Wright's epic new history tells the story of that victory--and of Australia's role in the subsequent international struggle--thro ugh the eyes of five remarkable players: the redoubtable Vida Goldstein, the flamboyant Nellie Martel, indomitable Dora Montefiore, daring Muriel Matters, and artist Dora Meeson Coates, who painted the controversial Australian banner carried in the British suffragettes' monster marches of 1908 and 1911. Clare Wright's Stella Prize-winning The Forgotten Rebels of Eurekaretold one of Australia's foundation stories from a fresh new perspective. With You Daughters of Freedomshe brings to life a time when Australian democracy was the envy of the world--and the standard bearer for progress in a shining new century. Dr Clare Wrightis an award-winning historian and author who has worked as an academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant and radio and television broadcaster. Her most recent book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, won the 2014 Stella Prize and the 2014 NIB Award for Literature and was shortlisted for many other awards. 'You Daughters of Freedombrings some forgotten women into the public discourse again, and we are all the richer for it.' Australian 'A celebration of leadership, inspiration, education and sheer individual cheek.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Clare Wright's You Daughters of Freedomis the uplifting story of a time Australia led the world in including women in our democratic project. It is a reminder of our proud legacy and a clarion call for who we can be.' Penny Wong 'The essential story of our greatest reformers, and one of our proudest achievements as a nation.' George Megalogenis 'A thrilling tale, superbly told, of brave Australian women with a passion for politics.' Judith Brett 'A rare achievement. Grand, bold and brilliantly written.' Mark McKenna 'This book will be brilliant.' Annabel Crabb, Chat 10 Looks 3 'One of the country's most accomplished story-tellers relates Australian women's fight for the vote in all of its passion, intensity and drama.' Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU 'You Daughters of Freedomrelates with sparkle and wit the largely untold story of the trailblazing women who not only dragged recalcitrant male leaders into the new century and won the right to vote but also were at the forefront of the struggle for women's enfranchisement internationally.' Inside Story 'Her story of Australian suffragists winning the vote and then running for parliament in 1903 should be required reading in this time of angst over the 'women problem' in the federal Liberal Party.' Weekend Australian Magazine ...Show more

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

$19.99 AUD

Category: Australian

'Dark Emu injects a profound authenticity into the conversation about how we Australians understand our continent ... [It is] essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what Australia once was, or what it might yet be if we heed the lessons of long and sophisticated human occupation.' Jud ges for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing -- behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources.   Bruce's comments on his book compared to Gammage's: " My book is about food production, housing construction and clothing, whereas Gammage was interested in the appearance of the country at contact. [Gammage] doesn't contest hunter gatherer labels either, whereas that is at the centre of my argument." ...Show more

Suburbia: The Familiar and Forgotten by Warren Kirk

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australian

The sentiment that flows through these images is a balm to the knowledge that time is passing and things will change -- William McInnes. Warren Kirk's photos will strike a chord with anyone who's grown up in the Australian suburbs in the past 50 years. Somehow both achingly familiar and unimaginab ly strange, these luminous images continue his 30-year project of documenting a way of life that is slowly disappearing, along with the people who lived it. Taken with loving attention and considerable skill, and with the utmost respect for the people and places that appear in them, Kirk's photos of shops and houses, of gardens and lounge-rooms, of people surrounded by the things they love, are beautifully evocative and powerfully nostalgic. ...Show more

Mutiny on the Bounty: A Saga of Sex, Sedition, Mayhem and Mutiny by Peter FitzSimons

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before.Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plant s from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave. Under the leadership of Fletcher Christian most of the crew mutinied soon after sailing from Tahiti, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. In one of history's great feats of seamanship, Bligh navigated this tiny vessel for 3618 nautical miles to Timor.Fletcher Christian and the mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where most remained and were later tried for mutiny. But Christian, along with eight fellow mutineers and some Tahitian men and women, sailed off into the unknown, eventually discovering the isolated Pitcairn Island - at the time not even marked on British maps - and settling there.This astonishing story is historical adventure at its very best, encompassing the mutiny, Bligh's monumental achievement in navigating to safety, and Fletcher Christian and the mutineers' own epic journey from the sensual paradise of Tahiti to the outpost of Pitcairn Island. The mutineers' descendants live on Pitcairn to this day, amid swirling stories and rumours of past sexual transgressions and present-day repercussions. Mutiny on the Bounty is a sprawling, dramatic tale of intrigue, bravery and sheer boldness, told with the accuracy of historical detail and total command of story that are Peter FitzSimons' trademarks. ...Show more

By Sea and Stars - The Story of the First Fleet by Trent Dalton

$24.99 AUD

Category: Australian

Dazzling, poetic and vivid storytelling from one of Australia's greatest writers, which tells the bloody, brutal and enthralling story of the epic journey of the First Fleet. Originally published as a multi-part serial in The Australian, By Sea and Stars tells the story of the epic voyage which led to the founding of our nation, as told from the point of view of the people who took part - willingly or unwillingly - in it. Drawing from historical sources of the time, including letters and journals, Trent Dalton, one of Australia's best writers, brings this epic voyage, and the people who went on it, to vivid life. This is not dry history of dates and names. These are gripping stories of real people, from the lowest to the highest. From terrified nine year old chimney sweep and convict John Hudson to conscientious Lieutenant Ralph Clark, pining after his wife and son, to the brave and determined Captain-General Arthur Phillip, the brightest star of the British Navy: these are the people who made the voyage, and these are their stories - of death, duty, glory, lust, violence, escape, mutiny - and a great southern land... ...Show more

The Land of Dreams: How Australians Won Their Freedom, 1788-1860 by David Kemp

$59.99 AUD

Category: Australian | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

The Land of Dreams- How Australians Won Their Freedom, 1788-1860 tells the story of how Australians became a free people, gaining the liberties they desired to take control of their own lives, the right to govern themselves and the capacity to address their own political problems through democratic inst itutions. As the first book in a path-breaking five-volume Australian Liberalism series, it tells the story of how Australians laid the foundations for one of the world's most successful countries, with unprecedented levels of personal liberty and social equality. Australians did not have to fight a war for their independence, but neither did they gain it without a struggle against policies imposed by a British government in which they had no part. It required a brilliant political campaign that walked to the edge of violent resistance and from it Australia gained a national identity and political leaders who would write their constitutions, introduce democracy and later lead the successful political fight for one Australian nation. ...Show more

A New History of the Irish in Australia by Diane Hall; Elizabeth Malcolm

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australian

A New History of the Irish in Australia In 1986, Patrick O'Farrell published a landmark book, The Irish in Australia. This was an important volume given that after the English, the Irish were the largest population in Australia between 1788 and 1945, comprising nearly 25 per cent of all non-Indigenous A ustralians by 1901. Drawing on source materials unused until now, A New History of the Irish in Australia focuses on key areas previously ignored, including race. Indeed, the Irish were seen as a different, inferior ethnic group, despised and feared. Catholic Irish were often seen as a threat to the empire in their supposed failure to show loyalty to the crown. Their alleged recklessness and the moral shortcomings of Irish men and women meant they were perceived as a threat to good manners and society, often the butt of jokes in popular culture. This book also looks at the Australian-Irish experience in the context of the worldwide Irish diaspora, revealing much about what Irish-Australians shared with Irish communities elsewhere and showing that the Irish-Australian experience was unique. ...Show more

Australia: What Happened? by Ben Pobjie

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian

The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean by Peter Burness (Editor)

$79.99 AUD

Category: Australian

Australia's official First World War correspondent Charles Bean saw more of the Australian army's activities and battles on the Western Front than anyone. Bean's private wartime diaries, held by the Australian War Memorial, form a unique and personal record of his experiences and observations throughout the war and were the basis of his monumental twelve-volume official war history. While his diaries relating to the Gallipoli campaign have been published in four editions, Bean's Western Front diaries are published here for the first time, edited by esteemed historian Peter Burness, and accompanied by over 500 incredible photographs, sketches and maps. ...Show more

John Curtin's War Volume II - Triumph and Decline by John Edwards

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian

The first volume of John Curtin?s War was recognized as 'a landmark in Australian political biography? (The Australian) and 'remarkable? (AFR). That book ends with the fall of Singapore and a fundamental realignment of Australia?s place in the world- 'The Americans were coming. So were the Japanese.? Th is second volume, 'Triumph and Decline?, tells the full, fascinating story of the next four years, as Curtin leads Australia in meeting its enemy and its new friend, the latter personified by the charismatic, self-certain General Douglas MacArthur. As Churchill abandons Australia and pursues a 'Hitler first? strategy, Curtin and MacArthur fight to ensure that the War in the Pacific is an American priority. As the critical battles of the Coral Sea and Midway decide Australia?s fate - and Kakoda creates a new legend - Curtin?s resolute calm and implacable determination lift him beyond party conflicts to become 'Australia?s leader?. But the outward strength disguises deteriorating health, and increasing doubt about the American alliance. Curtin determined Australia?s future - but what would it have been had he lived? 'Triumph and Decline? completes Edwards? masterpiece and cements John Curtin?s place as our greatest of Prime Ministers. ...Show more

Back Roads by Heather Ewart; Karen Michelmore (As told to)

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian

A road trip around Australia, discovering towns and communities outside the mainstream - and the colourful inhabitants whose grit and humour will uplift and inspire you. Discover the resilient and inspiring people who live outside big Australian cities - and indeed off the beaten track altogether. Defi ned by their strength and humility, these are characters whose grit and good humour will uplift and inspire. Based on the successful series hosted by Heather Ewart, Back Roads dives deeper to learn more about these wonderful communities and deliver fresh and compelling stories. 'They're proud communities like my hometown, full of surprises, fight and spirit', says Heather. Take, for example, Joan Sinclair, 83, horse & cattlewoman and outback legend, who featured in the first episode of series 3. The video of this feisty woman went viral on Facebook and has clocked up 1.3 million views. The show featured a wealth of characters and places, and the book will take you further into their lives. From strong women like Joan Sinclair, Heather Jones of the company Heavy Haulage Girls, and Dianne Reeves, transgender former dairy farmer, shearer and truck driver, to historic places - such as Pine Creek, built on the sweat of Chinese workers, and Maralinga, the only place in the world where you can stand on the site of an atomic bomb test - Back Roads will transport you from your city doorstep and show you what lies beyond in this land of surprise and determination. ...Show more

The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill by Meaghan Wilson Anastasios

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australian

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill, in which Sam Neill retraces Cook's footsteps, in the 250th anniversary year of Cook's first voyage. Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768 - 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted - but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed. The Pacific with Sam Neill is the companion book to the Foxtel documentary series of the same name, in which actor and raconteur Sam Neill takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples. Fascinating, engaging, fresh and vital - this is history - but not as you know it. ...Show more